Michigan Football: Wolverines battling Oklahoma for key 2021 recruits

Michigan football is squaring off against Oklahoma for a couple of key recruits in 2021: Donovan Edwards and Daymon David.

There’s no doubt that Michigan football‘s recruiting board for 2021 has started to shrink and two of the most important targets left are Donovan Edwards and Daymon David.

Edwards, of course, is the No. 2 player in the state of Michigan and a top-40 recruit overall in the 247 composite rankings. He’s truly an elite prospect and one of the top running backs in 2021 too.

He’s been an obvious priority for the Wolverines for a long time and Sam Webb of the Michigan Insider ($) caught up with Edwards and his head coach, former U-M player, Ronald Bellamy.

Edwards, who has always expressed the view that he wants to commit closer to the early signing period, has been impressed by Oklahoma and especially former NFL back Demarco Murray.

"I’ve loved DeMarco Murray for years now. And just being able to get the opportunity for him to recruit me and for me to actually build a very real relationship, that’s a blessing from God in my opinion.”"

That’s not exactly what you want to hear from Edwards, but he had plenty of praise for Jim Harbaugh too. And he also spoke favorably about the class Michigan football has been able to put together, here’s more of what Edwards said to Webb:

"“But I understand my role in (in Michigan’s 2021 recruiting picture). I’m the top priority, most definitely. They’ve got JJ (McCarthy), they got Gio (El-Hadi), they got Xavier (Worthy)… they got (everyone else) they want already. I feel like I’m definitely the missing piece, most definitely.”"

Georgia is another team mentioned as being in the mix with Edwards. But the most consistent seem to be Michigan and Oklahoma. Bellamy even suggested Edwards could take a dead-period visit to Oklahoma.

That would seem to indicate the Sooners are a real threat. I wouldn’t count out Georgia either. At the end of the day though, Michigan still feels like the favorite.

Michigan making a move with Daymon David

EJ Holland of Rivals paid a visit to David, who is the top safety target on the board for Michigan football. One thing Holland has noted ($) and did so again is that the U-M staff feels like this recruitment is headed in the right direction, which is always a positive sign.

As with Edwards, Holland reported that Harbaugh has been personally contacting David, along with safeties coach Bob Shoop. R.J. Moten has also started recruiting David.

Yet, Oklahoma has been viewed as a real contender throughout and that’s something else to take away from Holland’s update, who also noted that David, who is ranked as a two-star by Rivals, is vastly underrated. He’s ranked outside the top 1,000 in the 247 composite too.

Regardless of his rating, David is a wanted commodity and much like with Edwards, the recruiting battle feels like it has come down to OU and the Wolverines.